I didn't think that i was going to post on here again if i am being honest, even though i probably said the same thing last year haha. Though, i am almost certain, that this will be my final thread on here. After this year, i don't think that i will have many new thought's and ideas to bring to the community, so lets make this year a good one and have fun in the process!

I think that my previous thread was fairly reflective of my attitude towards the game last year- it was almost coming second best to things such as my marathon training, living abroad for a couple months or looking for a flat towards the end of the year. It's time to start putting the game FIRST again! I am going to put the flat purchase on hold for another year or so, so that i can fully focus on poker this year and not limit myself to what stakes i can play by wiping out most of my roll on buying a flat. That would mean i could not shot take $5k, not play any live tournaments (more about that in a minute) etc, which is fine if you are a pussy that is content on living in the comfort zone- but i am not!

I listened to David Goggins new book on Audible recently named 'never finished' and i realised that i am not finished in poker yet. A couple of months ago i was thinking about making this my last year in poker, as i turn thirty in September and that would mean that i have played the game professionally for ten years at that point. However, he talked about front loading your life, so that when you run in to issues further down the line (such as simply getting older, picking up an injury, becoming unwell etc) then you can be content as you have done as much as possible in your life up until that point. The worst thing to do would be to get to the end of your life and then regret that you didn't do certain things when you were physically, or mentally able to.

I have done pretty well in online poker, specifically at cash games (though of course i still have room for improvement there). I have done okay in online tournaments, in the sense that i am at least up some money in them lifetime despite not really studying them very often. However, i could improve a lot at them. An area that i have basically abandoned in my poker career is live poker. I have always found it to be too slow, and full of people with big ego's who like to get in to pointless arguments (though this is perhaps an unfair assessment based on my days playing at the Dundee casino aged 18-19 haha). What we cannot debate is how soft they are. So by basically avoiding all forms of live poker throughout my online poker career since i turned professional aged twenty over nine years ago, i have left a lot of money on the table and never had the experiences of (except from one random £500 tournament in Edinburgh 4.5 years ago) of running deep, making final tables, meeting new people and travelling the world in the process.

So with all of that being said, here are my poker related goals;

1- Treat the game like a full time profession. Play five days per week and maintain consistent study (including more mtt study and even some books on live reads etc).

I am not going to set volume related goals because they can become overwhelming. I just want to turn up five days per week, and let the volume take care of itself.

2- Start playing live poker, with a focus on live tournaments specifically. Play at least one EPT and (potentially) go to the WSOP during the Summer.

I plan on playing a bunch of tournaments in the UK this year, so that i can get some practice in and don't have to travel longer distances to grind. There is a £1.5k in a month or so with £1m guaranteed that i am going to make my first tournament.

3- Level up at cash games.

Even if i can't get in to the high stakes games on GG, i want to become the best 6max cash player on Stars. Recently i have been battling some of the best regs like Milanov , Ipoker, Lacko etc at $2k. I am not saying i am making money by playing them, but with my consistent study and desire to improve, i want to get to the top of the tree by the end of the year.

Of course i realise that a ton of really good regs don't play on Stars any longer, but i cannot compare myself to players that i don't play against.

Maybe some people will get offended by this goal, but if you want to settle for mediocrity, then go for it and see where you end up :)

Shoot for the moon, and if you miss you will still be among the stars.

I'm not setting non poker related goals because this is going to be a poker thread this year!

Good luck in 2023 and lets have some fun :)